Sincerely, The Breakfast Club
by lottacats
Summary: The year is 1986. Four very different students are forced to spend ten hours together in Saturday detention and write an essay about who they think they are. But who are they, really?
1. 7:00 am

_A/N: Hello! This is my first Merlin fanfic so please let me know how I'm doing. This is based off of the breakfast club, so see if you can spot any of the one liners I used from the movie! Shout out to user rubberglue for helping me with the ideas. Check out her work, especially Adventures In Babysitting, she's really great. _

_Note: Morgana, Uther, and Arthur are not related in this story. At the beginning there's a bit from each person's point of view, then the rest of the chapter is from Merlin's point of view_

_Stay Gold —Brenna _

_Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin or The Breakfast Club, they belong to the original creators_

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><p><strong><span>Sincerely, The Breakfast Club- 7:00 AM <span>**

It was raining on Saturday when three cars pulled up in front of Albion High. In a mercedes-benz sat Morgana le Fay, who was looking at the school in disgust.

"You really can't get me out of this?" She said to her dad, who patted her arm sympathetically.

"I'm sorry, but I can't. I'll make it up to you sometime."

"Whatever." Morgana sighed and stepped out on to the pavement, holding her purse over her head.

In a pickup truck, Arthur King was tuning out his father.

"Arthur! Are you listening to me?"

"Yes, Father." He said automatically.

"If you want that scholarship you'll screw around less and practice more, unless you wanna end up like that guy."

Arthur's father pointed to a boy crossing the street in rag tag clothes and sunglasses, despite that there was no sun shining. The boy took a long drag on his cigarette and tossed it on the ground carelessly.

Arthur shook his head. "No, sir."

"Then get in there and get this over with."

Arthur made sure to slam the car door behind him.

Gwen Thomas glanced at Mrs. Hooper, who was staring straight ahead absentmindedly. Gwen cleared her throat. No response.

"Uh...thank you for the ride, Mrs. Hooper. You'll be picking me up right? At 5?"

The lady nodded once, and Gwen hoped she heard her, otherwise she'd be walking home. She waved after she shut the door, but Mrs. Hooper didn't even look her way.

Merlin Emrys exhaled a cloud of smoke and put his sunglasses in his pocket. He kicked the door of the media center and smirked at the familiar room. A girl with curly hair in a tight ponytail was sitting in his usual seat with a stack of loose leaf and a pencil laid out neatly in front of her. Merlin glared at her and sat behind a girl in expensive looking clothes with a pout on her face. A jock in a letter jacket strode in and sat down next to her.

Behind the jock was the Devil Himself.

"At least you were all on time." Vice principal Uther Pendragon sneered. "Welcome to detention. From 7 am to 5 pm you will think about whatever it is you've done."

Rich Girl raised her hand. "Excuse me? I know this is detention but I don't think I belong _here_." She glanced around at everybody else, and Merlin snorted. Uther ignored this and continued his speech.

"You will not speak, you will not laugh, and _you_" at this he pointed right at Merlin "will not sleep."

Merlin widened his eyes. "Mr. Pendragon how can I be expected to function without a healthy full eight hours of sleep?"

Uther ignored this too. "Today you will each be writing a thousand word essay about who you think you are. Maybe you'll decide if you want to return here next Saturday."

He handed out paper and pencils to everyone except for Seat Stealer Girl. Then he pointed at Merlin again.

"No trouble, Emrys."

The door slammed shut and Merlin looked around.

"Are you all gonna be this quiet the whole time?" He asked. "Really?"

No one said anything. Then Merlin noticed a weird biting noise. He turned to see Seat Stealer chewing her pencil and staring down at her paper, where she had a venn diagram drawn. This girl was actually _doing_ her essay?

Merlin gawked. She glanced over and blushed, taking the pencil out of her mouth and placing it on the table.

"Hey, brain. If you keep eating that pencil, you won't have any room for lunch."

"Would you mind shutting up?" Rich Girl had twisted around in her seat and was glaring at him. "No one here is interested in conversing with you."

"Exactly." The jock said. Merlin directed his gaze at him.

"Sorry, Sporto. I didn't mean to interrupt your thoughts, I'm sure they were extremely complex."

Rich Girl rolled her eyes.

"Or maybe you were thinking about prom queen here. Don't you too make a beautiful couple?" Merlin's voice dripped sarcasm.

"Shut up!" Rich Girl yelled, her green eyes bright and angry.

"If you keep yelling Pendragon's gonna come in here and I don't want to miss my meet next week." Jock said to both of them.

"I'm sure that would be traumatizing, missing a whole wresting meet."

"Shut it, you've never played a sport before."

Merlin shrugged. "Maybe I'll just join the wresting team."

"They wouldn't take you." Rich Girl giggled, and for some reason Merlin felt himself reddening.

"At least I don't have to wear tights." He said swiftly.

"You have to wear tights?" Seat Stealer spoke up for the first time, cringing a little when everyone stared at her. Merlin chuckled at her innocent expression, she unaware that they were just arguing.

"I wear the required uniform." Jock replied

The girl blinked. "Isn't that tights?"

He rolled his eyes and a heavy silence fell for a minute before Rich Girl turned around again.

"What's your name?" She asked

"Merlin. What's yours."

"Morgana. It's a family name."

Merlin's nose wrinkled his nose. "It's an ugly name."

"I'm not ugly." Morgana said.

"I didn't say you were. How much did that nose job cost?"

"Shut the hell up."

"Make me."

After that it got quiet again, and Merlin decided it was time to catch up on his eight hours. So he put his head on the table and closed his eyes, slipping into an uncomfortable sleep.


	2. 9:30 am

_A/N: Hellooo. Thank you for the reviews and interest in this story. Now we get a chapter from Morgana's perspective, and next will be from Gwen's. I'm still using scenes from the movie, but from here on they'll be less like the movie and more of my own ideas. Tell me what you think. _

_Stay Gorgeous ~Brenna_

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><p><span><strong>Sincerely, The Breakfast Club— 9:30 am<strong>

When Morgana's eyes fluttered open she saw Merlin perched on a bookshelf reading an encyclopedia and smoking a cigarette. Her nose crinkled at the odor, and she coughed delicately, trying to wave the smell away from her. Merlin looked up, his blue eyes meeting her's.

"Oh good, you're awake. Would you like to see a photograph of a giant tarantula?" He asked as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Morgana shuddered. "No, I hate spiders."

Beside her, Arthur lifted his head from his arms and yawned, stretching his arms.

"Hey, sleepy." Morgana said

Arthur ignored her, instead focusing on Merlin, who was ripping a page out of the encyclopedia.

"Very intelligent." The jock said monotonously.

Merlin hopped off the shelf still holding the piece of paper. He licked the back of the paper and stuck it to Arthur's forehead.

"I saw this picture and it reminded me of you, Sporto."

"What—" Arthur pulled the picture off his head, and paled before crumpling it up and throwing it away quickly.

Merlin couldn't contain his laughter anymore and collapsed on the ground. Even the nerdy girl from Morgana's chemistry class was giggling a little bit.

Morgana picked the paper up off the floor, and unfolded it.

"Oh my god, _ew_! Are those—"

"Giant testicles? Yes. Pretty tasty looking, am I right?" He held up a hand and the dorky girl hesitantly high fived it.

"No that's the grossest thing I've ever seen!" But even as she said it Morgana found herself laughing into her hand. All three of them were laughing, and Morgana forgot for a short moment that she was in detention with people she didn't like.

Arthur slammed a fist on the table and stood up, his face flustered and angry.

"Alright, smart ass. Is this how you want to do this?"

The room had gone silent, and Morgana watched with interest as Arthur ripped off his jacket and began circling Merlin, whose smirk wavered.

Merlin shook his head and tutted. "Violence is never the answer, Sporto."

"My name is Arthur." The wrestler said through gritted teeth.

"For all I care your name could be Stupid Prat for all I care. Actually I believe it suits you—"

In a flash Arthur grabbed Merlin's skinny arms, pinned them behind his back and forced him face first to the ground. Merlin grunted and struggled, but soon relaxed, defeated and embarrassed.

However his voice remained confident as he said "I don't think you want to fight me, _Arthur_."

The stronger boy let him up, knowing he had already won. "And why is that?"

Without warning, Merlin whipped a knife out of his pocket and pointed it at Arthur, who took a wary step back. The girl across from her inhaled sharply and covered her face with her hands. Morgana found it almost impossible to believe that just a second ago they had all been laughing. Unwilling to step in, and a little curious about what would happen, she watched as Merlin dug the knife into the table next to him.

"I can kill you."

Arthur shook his head. "But you would not."

Merlin's mouth twitched into a slightly scary smile, but he said nothing.

"Erm, excuse me?"

All heads turned to the dorky girl.

"Can we just...calm down? I'd fancy not having another detention." She said it softly, her brown eyes at their feet.

Merlin chuckled dryly. "I'm sorry Brain, didn't mean to disturb you."

"She's got a name, you know." Arthur said sharply

"Yeah?"

"What's your name?" He asked her

"Gwen. It's short for Guinevere. It was my mother's middle name." It struck Morgana that she'd never bothered to learn this girl's name either, despite the fact that she was in two of her classes.

Merlin didn't say anything, he just went back to his seat and put his feet on the table. Morgana twisted around to observe him lighting another cigarette and using the match to light his shoe string on fire.

He looked up, his unusually bright blue eyes narrowing.

"What do you want?" He said suspiciously.

"Smoking is bad for you. You could get cancer and shit." Morgana informed him helpfully.

Merlin snorted derisively and held her gaze so long it made her squirm.

"Honey, I couldn't care less about cancer."

"Actually it's 'could care less'."

"No, I'm pretty sure it's couldn't."

"It's could. You're wrong, you just won't admit it."

"Any other pieces of advice you're dying to give me, or are you just going to stare at me some more?"

"I wasn't staring at you!"

"Stop, he just wants attention." Arthur rolled his eyes, and Morgana's anger grew. She turned around and sighed frustratedly.

"Sweets."

She turned around, red in the face from embarrassment and anger, ready to yell at him some more.

"You couldn't ignore me if you tried."

"THAT'S IT! YOU'RE GONNA DIE!"

She punched his arm as hard as she could, but he only chuckled. She punched him again, and he continued laughing, which infuriated her further.

"YOU. FUCKING. TOSSER. I. HATE. YOU."

Morgana's fists were starting to hurt, but she kept throwing punches, willing to break a hand if it meant the stupid look on his face would disappear.

The sound of the door opening had everyone scrambling back to their seats, and Morgana adjusted her hair and fanned her flushed face.

"Dammit, what is all this noise?"

Uther Pendragon squinted at everyone, his eyes pausing on Merlin.

"Were you causing a ruckus again?"

"I don't believe so, sir."

"Don't act stupid. Did you or did you not cause a ruckus."

"It was Morgana, sir. She was hitting me."

Morgana tensed and pasted on her most innocent look, resolving to kill Merlin later. Uther looked at her skeptically. Her father often donated money to school programs and Morgana was a good student, active in a few after school clubs, and captain of the varsity cheer squad. Because of this Morgana was well liked among school staff. It also helped that Uther already seemed to dislike Merlin.

"I wouldn't touch him, Mr. Pendragon." Morgana promised.

"That's another detention next Saturday, Emrys."

Merlin sat up and glared at her. "She's lying."

"If you continue this ridiculousness you'll get another Saturday."

"She's a lying shit."

"That's another right there."

"But you have no proof." Merlin raised his eyebrows at the vice principal.

"Are you quite finished?"

"Are you?"

"There's another."

"It's not fair."

"Oh cry me a river, you've already got five."

"Cut it out!" Morgana interrupted.

"That doesn't sound accurate. This is an outrage!" He glanced at Morgana, then threw an arm over his face in mock despair and Uther grabbed his upper arm, a vein in his head bulging out.

"And now you have six. Don't mess with the bull, smart ass, you'll get the horns."

"You really think I give a shit?"

Uther let go of his arm and Merlin fell to the floor. "That's what you want them to think. That's all that matters, right? What everyone else thinks. You know what I think? I think you ought to spend less time trying to impress people and more time trying to make something out of yourself. But you won't, because you're a worthless bum. That's what you'll always be."

Merlin's haughty expression was replaced by something unreadable. He picked himself up off the ground and sat silently in his chair, not looking up. A sense of guilt washed over Morgana and she considered confessing that it was her fault. Although she wasn't afraid of men like Uther, she wasn't about to give up her spotless record. Besides, she told herself, it was his fault he got all those detentions.

Uther held up two fingers and scowled at the significantly less cocky boy.

"Two months, Emrys."

Then he left the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Fucking dick." Merlin said under his breath.

Morgana bit her lip to keep from saying anything. Instead, she took out her compact mirror and reapplied her lipstick, glancing at Merlin behind her in the mirror.

A flicker of regret crossed his face and was gone so quickly that Morgana thought she must have imagined it.

She used her coat as a pillow and let herself slip into a daydream of a plane trip to Paris.


	3. 11:00 am

_A/N:I don't have any excuse to offer for such a late update...but thank you to those of you who are still following this story. Here's a chapter from Gwen's point of view. She's a little shy in this chapter, but later in the story she will gain confidence. _

_Happy New Year —Brenna_

_Disclaimer: You know what goes here_

**Sincerely, The Breakfast Club — 11:00 am **

Gwen knew that she should be writing the final draft of her essay by now, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Her eyelids felt heavy and she rested her chin on her hand while mindlessly sketching a face on her paper.

"Who is it?"

Merlin had pulled up a chair and was pointing at the face. Gwen looked down at her paper

"It's my brother, I guess." she whispered, not wanting to disturb the others, who were sleeping again.

"What's his name?"

"Elyan, but we—" Gwen shook her head and corrected herself, "I call him Eli."

The Hoopers never called him Eli. The Hoopers probably didn't even remember his name.

Merlin nodded, understanding that she didn't want to talk about it.

"Do you have any sisters or brothers?" She asked him, happy to switch the subject away from her.

"Nah. I always wanted a little brother though, so I could teach him all the stuff that matters."

"Stuff that matters?"

"Yeah, like how to steal a pack of gum from the store without getting caught and how to flip a pancake correctly."

Gwen giggled. She also often wished she had a younger sister, someone she could talk to. _But a brother is better than no one_, she reminded herself. Even if he wasn't around anymore.

"Where is he now?"

Gwen was pulled out of her thoughts and was surprised to see that it was not Merlin who was asking. Arthur had woken up and was waiting for an answer. Merlin, surprisingly, didn't say anything to Arthur, he just watched with mild interest.

"Where is who?" She replied, confused both at what she was asking and why he was speaking to her.

"Your brother."

"Oh! He's, um, in Chicago. He wants to be a pro boxer."

"Oh." Arthur looked kind of impressed, and Gwen swelled with pride for her brother, who had pursued his life long dream. Gwen's dad wanted his son to become a mechanic and join the family business, but Elyan refused. He dropped out of college and moved out in the middle of the night about a year ago, leaving only a good bye note for Gwen.

"I miss him." She mumbled.

"It's time for lunch." Uther Pendragon announced as he entered the room, slamming the door behind him.

"Excuse me, sir. Will we be eating in here? Isn't that a danger to the books?" Merlin asked with fauz innocence.

"Try not to get any food on the books Emrys. Two of you may go get sodas for everyone, from the vending machine in the cafeteria."

Merlin stood up. "I'll go!"

Uther snapped his fingers and pointed at him. "I think not. Sit down boy. Arthur King, you will go. And..."

Gwen crossed her fingers, not wanting to be alone with someone she had never dared to speak to.

"You will go with him."

Uther was pointing at her.

"Me?"

"Yes, you. Get up!"

Gwen saw Arthur roll his eyes and heard Morgana snicker into her hand. Her face burned and she pulled her sweater tighter around her.

"You're going the wrong way." Arthur said, annoyed. "The cafeteria is this way."

Gwen's face burned. He walked slowly, but his strides were long enough to make her pace quicker than she wanted.

"So. What's your poison?"

Why was he speaking to her again? And what poison was he talking about?

"What do you like to drink?" He rephrased.

"Well, cola is nice, but so is orange juice—"

"I meant alcohol." Arthur smiled at her. A real smile.

"Oh!" Her brain faltered, and she said the first thing she thought of. "I like vodka."

"Vodka." He repeated, clearly not believing her. "And when do you drink vodka?"

Gwen blinked. Why was he asking her so many questions? "Whenever."

"Do you drink a lot of it?" The corners of his eyes crinkled humorously and Gwen wished she was invisible.

"Tons." She avoided his eyes and fiddled with a piece of hair.

"You don't actually drink, do you?

With an awkward giggle, Gwen shook her head. "No, but if I did it would probably be vodka. That's the strongest kind, isn't it?"

Arthur nodded, and she noticed that his shirt was the same exact shade of blue as his eyes, then wisely decided that this was not something she should say out loud.

"So what did you do to get a detention? I'm assuming it wasn't vodka, right?"

Gwen blanched and retorted hastily "What did you do?"

A muscle in his jaw jumped, and there was a slight hesitation before he launched into an explanation of a misunderstanding involving the wrestling team.

Gwen tried her best to follow along, but gave up when he started using technical sports terms.

"The team is counting on me to win tomorrow, so I took a hit for them all. It's for the best, you know? It's because I have agility and stamina...like a race horse. There's going to be scouts watching, so I can't afford any foolishness." Arthur concluded with a grin that seemed uncertain. She knew right away he was lying, but nodded along anyway.

"That's...interesting. So why are you really here?"

His face hardened, and Gwen immediately started back pedaling.

"I mean, not that you would lie or anything, I was just trying to—"

"Forget it."

"I don't want you to be mad! I didn't—"

"I said forget it, Guinevere. Give me the money."

Gwen quieted, stunned at the use of her full name, and equally stunned that he actually knew her name. She poured the handful of quarters she was given into his hands, careful not to let their fingertips touch.

She offered to carry the cola but he shook his head, holding the four cans himself.

The walk back to the library was quiet. Arthur was silent and only looked straight ahead, while Gwen continued to feel guilty and racked her brain for something to say. But she was unable to think of anything by the time they were back at the library.

"What the hell is that?" Merlin asked Morgana, who had set up a small tray for herself and was eating using chopsticks.

"It's sushi."

"Again. What the hell is that?"

"Raw fish and seaweed with rice and sauce."

Merlin didn't bother hiding his repulsion. "That sounds revolting. Remind me never to ask about your eating habits again."

Gwen had packed herself a much more appealing lunch. Pixie stix, her favorite cereal, an apple and two slices of bread. She put the cereal on the bread, sprinkled the pixie stix on top, and crushed it between the two slices. Smiling happily at her creation, she was about to take a bite when she noticed everyone in the room was staring at her.

"What?" She said, challenging anyone to criticize her lunch.

"Am I the only person in this room who eats normally?!" Merlin exclaimed

Arthur and Morgana shrugged and turned back to their own meals.

Merlin sat down next to Gwen and took a bite of the apple she brought.

"Keep eating like that and you're going to get diabletas by the time you graduate." He said with his mouth full.

"I think you mean diabetes."

"Whatever,. I'm eating the rest of this." To make his point he bit a larger chunk of apple.

"Whatever." Gwen smiled at him, happy that there was at least one person that didn't think she was crazy. Her eyes involuntarily glanced at Arthur, who still seemed to be ignoring her.

Huffing a sigh of annoyance, the young woman took a crunchy bite of her sugary sandwich, and resolved to ignore him right back.


End file.
